Fences by August Wilson
"Fences" is a powerful play by August Wilson that explores the life and struggles of Troy Maxson, an African American man navigating the complexities of race, family, and personal ambition in 1950s America. The narrative delves into Troy's challenging upbringing as the son of a sharecropper and his subsequent attempts to pursue the American Dream, particularly through his love for baseball—a pursuit hindered by racial segregation. The play opens with Troy at fifty-three, dealing with themes of mortality, identity, and the impact of societal expectations on personal relationships.
Throughout the story, Troy's character oscillates between admirable resilience and tragic flaws, as he erects emotional fences between himself and those he loves, including his wife Rose and son Cory. Key moments highlight his defiance against systemic racism and his internal conflicts, which lead to estrangement from family and friends. The play ultimately culminates in a moment of reconciliation, symbolized by the character Gabe, who brings a sense of hope and connection to Troy's journey. As Gabe attempts to usher Troy into the afterlife, the play suggests the enduring impact of love and the possibility of redemption. "Fences" thus serves as a poignant exploration of not only personal and familial struggles but also broader social issues facing African Americans.
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Subject Terms
Fences by August Wilson
First produced: 1985, at the Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, Connecticut
First published: 1985 in Theater magazine
The Work
Troy Maxson, the protagonist of August Wilson’s Fences, is the son of a frustrated sharecropper whose harshness drove off his wives and Troy. Troy has made his way north to a world where African Americans live in shacks and are unable to find work. Troy takes to stealing, kills a man, and is sent to prison, where he learns how to play baseball, which he loves and at which he excels. Segregation confines Troy, after prison, to the Negro Leagues. He is angry at the racism that frustrates his attempt at achieving the American Dream in the most American of sports, but he remains resilient. Fences celebrates his indomitable spirit, while acknowledging his flaws.
The play opens in 1957, when Troy is fifty-three years old. He is appealing in the zest with which he dramatizes his life. A battle with pneumonia becomes a time when he wrestles with a white-robed and hooded Death, and buying furniture on credit from a white man becomes making a deal with the devil. His friend Bono seems to acknowledge the African American tradition of these tall tales when he comments: “You got some Uncle Remus in your blood.” The audience learns of Troy’s admirable defiance at work in questioning the sanitation department’s policy of having all the whites drive while the blacks do the lifting. Troy also has an affectionate teasing relationship with Bono and his wife Rose.
As the play continues, however, Troy erects fences between himself and those he loves. He refuses to allow his son to accept a football fellowship to college and then forces him to leave home. Troy loses contact with Bono after being promoted at work. Troy hurts his wife through an extramarital affair, and he commits his brain-damaged brother, Gabe, to a mental institution so he can collect part of Gabe’s government checks.
Although Troy has tragic flaws, the ending of Fences is not tragic. A spirit of reconciliation is brought by Gabe, who has been allowed to leave the mental hospital to attend his brother’s funeral. Gabe thinks that, when he blows his trumpet, Saint Peter will open the pearly gates and allow Troy into Heaven. Gabe’s horn lacks a mouthpiece, however, and, distraught, he performs a dance, connected, presumably, to pre-Christian African ancestors. In performance, the stage is then flooded with light, indicating that the gates have opened.
Bibliography
Awkward, Michael. “‘The Crookeds with the Straights’: Fences, Race, and the Politics of Adaptation.” In May All Your Fences Have Gates, edited by Alan Nadel. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1994. Discusses what happens when a play such as Fences becomes adapted into film. Includes Wilson’s suggestions concerning directorial qualifications and claim of ownership over language production and representation of blackness.
Berkowitz, Gerald M. “August Wilson.” In American Drama of the Twentieth Century. London: Longman, 1992. Troy’s tragedy is that, although he represents the first generation of black Americans to progress into the middle class through pride and determination, his instinct is to preserve and consolidate what he has.
Birdwell, Christine. “Death as a Fastball on the Outside Corner: Fences’ Troy Maxson and the American Dream.” Aethlon 8 (Fall, 1990): 16-25.
Brown, Chip. “The Light in August.” Esquire 111 (April, 1989): 116. Wilson emphasizes black life on its own terms, not in confrontation with the white system. Parts of Fences may be inspired by Wilson’s uneasy relationship with his stepfather.
Fishman, Joan. “Developing His Song: August Wilson’s Fences.” In August Wilson: A Casebook, edited by Marilyn Elkins. New York: Garland, 1994.
Freedman, Samuel G. “A Voice from the Streets.” The New York Times Magazine 136 (March 15, 1987): 36. Fences reflects Wilson’s concern with legacy.
Gordon, Joanne. “Wilson and Fugard: Politics and Art.” In August Wilson: A Casebook, edited by Marilyn Elkins. New York: Garland, 1994. Seeks to interpret Fences by emphasizing its universal qualities as well as concentrating on the political significance of the piece in terms of the overt political philosophy of white South African artist Athol Fugard.
Harrison, Paul Carter. “August Wilson’s Blues Poetics.” In Three Plays, by August Wilson. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1991. Unlike Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949), Troy has no respect for the limitations imposed on him by a hostile world. Troy’s declarations of patriarchal au-thority resonate in the hearts and minds of most African Americans.
Henderson, Heather. “Building Fences: An Interview with Mary Alice and James Earl Jones.” Theater 16 (Summer/Fall, 1985): 67-70. Mary Alice and James Earl Jones performed the roles, respectively, of Rose and Troy Maxson when Fences opened at the Yale Repertory Theater. In this interview, they discuss the development of their characters, both as directed by Lloyd Richards and as guided by their own spontaneity.
Kester, Gunilla Theander. “Approaches to Africa: The Poetics of Memory and the Body in Two August Wilson Plays.” In August Wilson: A Casebook, edited by Marilyn Elkins. New York: Garland, 1994. Examines how Fences and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1986) highlight the metaphoric relationship between black American history and the black body. Shows how bringing the past into the present often leaves Wilson’s characters trapped in a sense of futility.
Pereira, Kim. August Wilson and the African-American Odyssey. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1995.
Reed, Ishmael. “August Wilson: The Dramatist as Bearer of Tradition.” In Writin’ Is Fightin’: Thirty-seven Years of Boxing on Paper. New York: Atheneum, 1988. Fences is informed by Wilson’s belief that a man should have responsibility for his family.
Shannon, Sandra G. The Dramatic Vision of August Wilson. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1995.
Shannon, Sandra G. “The Good Christian’s Come and Gone: The Shifting Role of Christianity in August Wilson Plays.” MELUS 16 (Fall, 1989): 127-142. Discusses how some of Wilson’s characters, such as Levee (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Troy Maxson (Fences), Herald Loomis (Joe Turner’s Come and Gone), and Boy Willie (The Piano Lesson), impose their authority and overshadow other characters. In their abandonment of Christianity and withdrawal from the religion of their ancestors, they construct their own self-serving and liberating dogma.